Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-01-15

can "a really difficult and perplexing easel IN
which the criminal has not escaped. Mind,
| don't charge the police with neglecting
their work. No doubt they do their best,
and take the greatest pains In following tina
routine to which they have been trained II
is their misfortune, not theirfault, that there
is no man OF superior intelligence among
them-I mean no man who Is capable, In
great emergencies of placing himself above
conventional methods aud following
new way of his own. There have been
such men in the policemen naturally
endowed with that faculty of mental
analysis which can decompose mystery, re-
solve 1t into its component parts, and find the
clew at the bottom, no matter how remote
from ordinary observation it may be- But
those men have died or have retired. One of
them would have been invaluable to you in
the case you have just mentioned to me. As
things are unless you are wrong in believing
in the young lady's innocence the person
who has stolen that bank note will be no easy
person to find In my opinion there is only
one man now in London who is likely to be of
the slightest assistance to you, and he is not
in the police"
| who Is he" asked Mr.. Troy.
IAN old rogue, who was once in your
branch of the legal profession" the friend an
swered. you may, perhaps, remember the
man; they call him old Sharon"
"Whati the scoundrel who was struck off
the roll Of attorneys years sincel Is he still
alivel"
"Alive and prospecting. He lives in court
or lane running out of Longacre and he
offers advice to persons interested In recover
ing missing objects of any sort. Whether
you have lost your wife or lost your cigar
case, Old Sharon is equally useful to you
He has an inbred capacity for reading the
riddle the right way in cases Of mystery.
great or small In short, he possesses exactly
that analytical faculty to which / alluded
just now. | have his address at my office, If
you think it worth while to try him."
who can trust such manF Mr.. Troy
objected. HE would be sure to deceive
me-"
you are entirely mistaken. Since he was
struck off the rolls Old Sharon has discovered
that the straight way is, on the whole, the
best way, even in mans own interests His
consultation fee is a guinea; and he gives a
signed estimate beforehand for any supple
mentary expenses that may follow. l car
tell you this is, of course, strictly betweera
ourselves) that the authorities at ihy offi0e
took his advice in a government case that
puzzled the police. We approached him, OF
course, through persons who were to be
trusted to represent us without betraying the
source from which their instructions were
derived, and we found the old rasca's advice
well worth paying for 1t is quite likely that
| h, ,,,Ntc in T,,
the police, by all means; and il they fail
why there is Sharon as a last resource"
This arrangement commended itself to Mr..
rroy's professional caution. He went on tc
Whitehall, and he tried the detective police
They at once adopted the obvious conclusion
to persons of ordinary capacity-the con
clusion that Isabel was the thief
Acting on this conviction, the authorities
sent an experienced woman from the Office t.
Lady Lydiard's house to examine the pool
girls clothes and ornaments before they were
packed up ard sent after her to her aunt s
The search led to nothing. The only object
of any value that were discovered had beer
presents from Lady Lydiard. No jewelers.
or milliners' bills were among the paper
found in her desk. Not a sign OF secret ex
! travagance in dress was to be seen anywhere
Defeated so far, the police proposed next t.
have Isabel privately watched. There nigh
be prodigal lover somewhere in the back
; ground, with ruin staring him in the fac
unless he could raise five hundred pounds
Lady Lydiard (who had only consented t
the search under stress Of persuasive argu
ment from Mr. Troy resented this ingeniou
idea as an insult. She declared that II Isabe
was watched the girl should know of it In
stantly from her own lips The police lis
tened with perfect resignation and decorun
| and politely shifted their ground A certai
4 suspicion they remarkedl always rested il
, cases OF this sort ON the servants Woul
her ladyship object to private inquiries int
! the characters and proceedings of the ser
r vantsl Her ladyship instantly objected, i
the most positive terms Thereupon the iii
spectorn asked for minutes private CONVEX
sation with Mr. Troy. 1.-THE thief is eel
tainly a member of Lady Lydiard's house
hold" this fuuctionary remarked in hi
politely positive way. ''If her ladyship pei
sists in refusing to let us make the necessar
inquiries our hands are tied, and the cas-
comes to an end through no fault of ours.
. her ladyship changes her mind perhaps yo
q will drop me line, sir, to that effect Goo
A morning"
v So the experiment Of consulting the polio
: came to an untimely end The one resul
obtained was the expression of purblin
opinion by the authorities of the detectiv
o department, which pointed at Isabel or q
4 me of the servants as the undiscovere
;. thief. Thinking the matter over in the r,
n tirement of his own Office, and not forgettin
n his'promise to Isabel to leave no means III
n tried of establishing her innocence, Mr.. Tro
/. could see but one alternative left to hin
a He took up his pen and wrote to his frien
). at the government Office There was nothin
for it now but to run the risk and try Oh
Il Sharon.
u CHAPTER TX